Bateman’s directorial debut ‘Bad Words’ just mediocre

‘Bad Words’

Directed by: Jason Bateman

Starring: Jason Bateman, Kathryn Hahn, Rohan Chand

Grade: C

When did comedy stop being funny? It seems as though cinema has been spewing out agonizingly formulaic and unoriginal comedic movies for as long as time itself. Case in point: Jason Bateman’s directorial debut, “Bad Words,” which epitomizes the apathy and tedium that has come to define this disconcertingly predictable genre of film.

Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman, trying his damnedest to shake off that average-Joe, nice-guy typecast) is a foul-mouthed, middle-aged misanthrope who enters a national spelling bee for children by exploiting a dubious loophole, ostensibly just to piss off the parents of these hard-working kids. But when he meets Chaitanya Chopra (Rohan Chand), an overly innocent 10-year old competitor whose only friend is his spelling binder, Guy begins to show his softer side, and we realize he isn’t all that bad, after all.

On paper (and also in the misleadingly promising Red Band trailer), this movie could have been a gold mine of hilarity. Themes that involve pushy parents, midlife crises and educational systems are overlooked to make room for a catalogue of desperately unfunny quips on race, weight and puberty. All of these crude remarks are dribbled from the lips of Guy, who isn’t given enough depth to be likeable, nor is he quite despicable enough to be entertaining. He’s just rather pathetic.

Once we discover the reasons he is such a grumpy, obnoxious cynic — which is basically the most unoriginal narrative ploy used to render straight, white men sympathetic — it only confirms that he’s not as edgy and mysterious as he, and the movie in general, thinks he is. 

Unfortunately, the surrounding characters do little to ameliorate this central flaw and are completely two-dimensional. Jenny (Kathryn Hahn, providing some quirk but no charisma) plays a journalist documenting Guy’s story, proverbially jabbing to get some interesting information, but she is simply a means of sucking out some half-hearted moralism from Guy. Moreover, the awkwardly included sexual interactions between the two, during which Jenny demands Guy not look at her, feel shoehorned in for the sake of more comic vulgarity.

Despite this, Guy’s sickly sweet counterpart and part-time ally Chaitanya manages to show us the unpracticed fatherly side of Guy. It’s a momentarily intriguing relationship, as Guy guides him through a 101 course in debauchery, sin and breasts, but it doesn’t materialize into the heartfelt friendship it initially promises. That said, their relationship does provide some engaging and chuckle-worthy scenes within a film that, for the most part, is uninteresting and unfunny.

Bateman’s direction is overwhelmingly fine. He does everything to the book, as is expected from a first-time actor-turned-director. Though when he does try a little experimentation with ill-fitting uses of slow-motion, it reeks of inexperience. But we’ll let him off, being such a nice guy and all.

Finally, for a film that was carried, albeit quite laboriously, by the conceit of its central character being a black-hearted, unsympathetic jerk, it’s completely undermined by the conventional and lackluster final moments. The film’s attempt at an uplifting ending is forced, transparent and woefully predictable. 

The most annoying thing about “Bad Words” is that it isn’t even bad. It’s just depressingly mediocre.